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Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated Darkness Before Dawn (Darkness Before Dawn, #1) in Books

Sep 6, 2019

3.25 stars.

I liked this to start with--the first 40% or so--but then I started to lose interest. I can't put my finger on what it was but I was determined to carry on and figure out who "hoodie" was and why Sin seemed a little odd.

It rumbled along at a quite sedate pace for awhile, nothing too much happening apart from relationship issues. I was interested in a Dawn/Victor romance and we had a little of that but I thought there was too much Michael for my liking and I wasn't too fond of him for a time.

At about the 85% mark, I realised something and I was pleasantly surprised and then another something happened at the 90% mark that had me getting interested in the story again.

But then that ending! How could it just end like that?! I'm sure that Victor will stop, though, after all she is the only sunshine he will ever see.

My edition contained a preview of the next book in the trilogy but I skipped it as I'm not entirely convinced that I liked it enough to continue the series.

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David McK (3610 KP) rated The Winter King in Books

Sep 4, 2020

The Winter King

Bernard Cornwell | 1995 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics

7.5

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

The first of Bernard Cornwell's so-called Warlord trilogy novels, which are a retelling/reimagining of the King Arthur Legend.

These are also novels that - despite being the author's own personal favourites of the (many) novels he has written - I have struggled with, never really getting into them or feeling any connection with the story or character in the same way as I do towards Uhtred of Bebbanburg, or to Richard Sharpe.

I don't know whether that's because these are so different than I was originally expecting (the magic and mysticism of the tales, here, are more to do with superstition and ignorance), or whether because it may be fairer to call these a tale of Derfel, who narrates the story in later life in a monastery and how - here- he first came to the service of Arthur, the King that never was.

Maybe also because of the Dark Ages setting, which - obviously, since so little is known of that period (hence the name Dark Ages!) - means that Cornwell can't really bring history to life like he does in most of his other works?